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Overview

​Scope and Content

Collection contains correspondence, business paperwork, photographs, financial ledgers, film industry materials, and theater history related to the Interstate Theater Circuit.  

Karl Hoblitzelle came to Dallas from St Louis, Missouri, in 1906.  While working for the St. Louis World's Fair​,

[Hoblitezelle's] entertainment contacts alerted him to the Southwest's potential for a vaudeville circuit, and in 1905, with his brother and others, he founded the Interstate Amusement Company, with theaters in Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, and San Antonio.  In 190​6 Hoblitzelle was elected president of the company.  One of his first acts was to execute a policy of censoring vaudeville acts for family entertainment, markedly upgrading the "saloon" theater image of the time.  Eventually he expanded his holdings to include motion-picture theaters, where he provided his audiences with the latest in technical advances.  Among his innovations were air-conditioning, sound, earphones for the hard-of-hearing, children's cry and play rooms, and children's chairs.  In 1920 he married Esther Thomas, who, under the name Esther Walker, had pursued a career as a singing actress in New York.

In 1942 the Hoblitzelles formed the Hoblitzelle Foundation (first as a trust, later as a nonprofit corporation) to be used for "charitable, scientific, literary, or educational efforts." When Ester Hoblitzelle died in 1943 the bulk of her estate went to the foundation, which also received Hoblitzelle's estate upon his death [on March 8, 1967]. —Taken from the Handbook of Texas​

With the waning of the vaudeville era, Hoblitzelle changed the Majestic and other theaters into moving picture theaters.  The theaters closed or changed hands over time. The Majestic closed in 1973.  In 1983, the Hobliztelle Foundation, continuing to perform its philanthropic mission,  donated the Majestic to the City of Dallas.  ​After a refurbishment, the city reopened the theatre for both live and screened performances. The theater was officially rededicated on January 16, 1983, and Liza Minelli headlined the grand re-opening of the Majestic on March 8, 1983.

The collection was obtained, originally, by the  Majestic Theatre from the Estate of Lovita Irby.  Lovita Choat and Kenneth Irby met while working at the theaters on the same block of Elm Street in downtown Dallas—Choat at the Towe​r and Irby at the Majestic Theatre (both Interstate theaters).  They married in 1966.  She maintained a lifelong interest in the Interstate Amusement Company, with a focus on the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, and curated this collection herself.  Irby passed away in 2021; her desire to donate this collection to the city was already agreed upon.

Organization

The collection is divided into two series:  papers and photography.

Access

Permission to publish, reproduce, distribute, or use by any and all other current or future developed methods or ​procedures must be obtained in writing from the Dallas Municipal Archives.  All rights are reserved and retained regardless of current or future development or laws that may apply to fair use standards.  The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.

This collection contains photographs that are not under the copyright control of the Dallas Municipal Archives.   In the context of the collection, those photographs are for interest and research only.

Citation

Lovita Irby Majestic Theatre Collection, 1908-1999​ (Box <x>, Folder <y>), Dallas Municipal Archives

Related ​Materials

Collection 1996-005—Majestic Theatre Renovations, 1937-1997

Index Terms

Dallas -- Texas -- History
Interstate Theater Circuit
Hoblitzelle, Karl St. John​
Majestic Theatre (Dallas, Tex.)​​
Motion picture theaters -- Texas -- Dallas

​Container List

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